Plankton can adapt to the primary cause of ocean acidification -- rising carbon dioxide in water -- but the organisms eventually lose their form of a skeleton. As a result, the plankton cannot fend off predators or competitors, and on…

By Leigh Anne Tiffany

Scientists have known for some time that shells of the tiniest sea life have been dissolving due to an increasingly polluted ocean. Pteropods, ocean-dwelling snails roughly the size of a thumbnail, have been dubbed by some the "…

By Elizabeth Shell

The world's ocean are absorbing carbon dioxide at an unprecedented rate and the resulting acidification is already altering marine ecosystems. We look at how ocean acidification is affecting shellfish and coral reefs.

Scientists call ocean acidification "the other carbon problem." When the ocean absorbs carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, it raises the pH of the water making it acidic. That shift makes sea animals' shell brittle, which makes a huge difference to…

By Rebecca Jacobson, Inside Energy